This invention relates to apparatus for producing honeycomb panels, and more particularly, to apparatus which enables continuous production of honeycomb panels and thereby improves productivity.
The honeycomb panel, as shown in FIG. 6, is a panel material which consists of a honeycomb core C formed of light metal foil or paper, sandwiched between two thin plates B of steel, light metal or plastics bonded together. The honeycomb panel used as a structural material is known for its light weight and very high resistance against bending. Such honeycomb panels have been manufactured, as shown in FIG. 7A, by placing on a table 71 a work W consisting of a honeycomb core C sandwitched between two thin plates B, B with thermosetting bonding agent applied therebetween; surrounding the work W with a plurality of frame members 74 and wrapping the entire assembly in a vacuum bag 72; putting the wrapped assembly in an autoclave 75, as shown in FIG. 7B; evacuating the interior of the vacuum bag 72 to apply atmospheric pressure on the work W and bind the honeycomb core C and the thin plates B together; and, in this condition, heating the interior of the autoclave 75 to harden the thermosetting adhesive between the honeycomb core C and the thin plates B.
This method, however, processes the honeycomb panels by a batch system, in which the autoclave is stopped to be heated every batch to replace processed works with new unprocessed ones. Therefore, at a time of starting next batch, it takes a fairly long time for the autoclave to raise a temperature to a necessary level for processing the works. This time loss lowers significantly the productivity and raise costs for production. Also, since the autoclave is very expensive, costs for an equipment are high.